The Sound of Silence
by Werewolf10
Summary: Third in trilogy. Melissa is confused when Jackson sudenly shuns away from everyone. MJ main pairing ND and ET. COMPLETE
1. The Night

**Sorry for the wait! I haven't had a lot of time on my hands lately. Anyway, here's the final story in the trilogy! It'll be a little different from the rest, but I hope just as good!**

**Chapter 1. The Night**

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Melissa woke up in the middle of the night to an empty tent. She had woken up partially to Daley leaving the tent, but that had to be at least an hour ago. Taylor wasn't there either.

Curious, she walked outside to see where everyone was. She saw two figures sitting on the beach about a hundred yards away. She could see Eric's hat on one and the other even from a distance looked like Taylor, so she knew where two people was, but where was Daley? She looked over in the direction of the fire pit and saw some one sitting infront of a small fire.

Melissa walked over to the fire pit half expecting it to be Daley. But to her surprise it was Jackson.

"Jackson? What are you doing up?" Melissa asked sleepily.

"I could ask you the same question." Jackson said still staring at the fire.

"I woke up and didn't see Taylor or Daley so I thought they might be over here. But Taylor and Eric are..."

"Together." Jackson half finished and half interrupted.

"What?" Melissa asked not knowing what he meant.

"Eric and Taylor are a couple, so are Daley and Nathan." Jackson sighed never breaking his glaze with the fire.

"But, what about the rule. I thought no couples until we get home." Melissa asked confused.

"Yeah, well, I guess I kinda knew from the beginning that we couldn't keep that rule." Jackson said still not looking away.

"Oh, ok. Well, then I..."

"And don't even think about trying to get close with me." Jackson said scowled as he got up and stormed away from the fire pit and in the direction of camp, leaving Melissa standing there confused beyond all belief.


	2. The Morning After

**Chapter 2. The Morning After**

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That night Melissa barely got any sleep. She was too preoccupied with what could have caused Jackson to go off like that. Finally, she decided that it was about time to get up. But when she walked out of the still empty tent, she got a huge shock.

A few yards down the beach Eric and Taylor were making out passionately with the waves coming up and lapping their feet.

Melissa smiled and shook her head before heading to the fire pit. When she got there, Lex had already gotten it going for the day.

"Hey, Lex. Thanks for starting the fire for me." Melissa yawned as she sat down next to him.

"No problem. So, I guess you've seen the two drool birds already."

"Yeah. Unfortunately. Hey, have you seen Jackson this morning?"

"Yeah. Hey went off to get some more bananas and see if he could find Nathan and Daley." Lex said nodding towards the jungle.

At that time, Nathan and Daley walked out of the jungle holding hands and giggling.

"There they are." Melissa smiled.

At this Nathan and Daley looked up and smiled before sitting down next to the fire.

"Great. Now I have two more people to try not to walk in on kissing." Lex sighed.

"Don't worry. We'll try be where you can find us. Doesn't look like that's the case with those two, though." Nathan said looking over at Eric and Taylor.

"You didn't happen to see Jackson out there, did you?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah. He was the one that sent us back." Daley said picking up a coconut.

"Did he seem any different?" Melissa asked again.

"Yeah, he seemed kinda grumpy. And not the kind that he usually is." Nathan said peeling a banana.

"He seemed like he was sad but trying to cover it up with anger. Why?" Daley added.

"No reason." Melissa lied.

"So, who's going to tell Romeo and Juliet that it's breakfast time?" Nathan laughed.

"Aw, just leave em'. When they get hungry enough they'll stop." Daley said.

Sure enough, a few minuets later a _very _tired Eric and Taylor walked over and sat down.

They both looked like had really got it going. Eric's shirt was halfway unbuttoned, his hair was a mess, and Taylor was wearing his hat.

Everyone took one look at them and started laughing.

Melissa laughed a bit, but her gaze kept returning worriedly to the jungle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. **

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The rest of the morning was a maze as Melissa and Lex tried to do their chores without walking up on a couple making out. But that was the least of Melissa's worries. Jackson had still not come back yet.

"Are you sure Jackson said that the rule is off?" Lex asked walking up to Melissa at the pursuit pit. "I don't know how much more I can take of all this kissing stuff.

"Yeah. Me told me last night." Melissa said half paying attention.

"Don't worry, he'll come back. You know Jackson, he's probably working on something." Lex said sympathetically.

At that moment Taylor ran down the beach giggling and carrying a shirt while a shirtless Eric ran in hot pursuit after her with a mad look on his face but everyone who saw could tell that he was happy.

"Now that's just disturbing." Lex said shaking his head and walking off.

Melissa just sighed as she continued to think about Jackson.

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"Just so you know, I'm happy for you and Nathan." Melissa said as she and Daley did the laundry later that day.

"Thanks. And I know your worried about Jackson, but don't. He'll be back by night." Daley said reassuringly.

Melissa just smiled and nodded. But inside she was a nervous wreck. She knew that he wouldn't be back.

'_What if Jackson gets hurt?'_

'_What if he gets lost?'_

These questions swam around in Melissa's head until she couldn't take it anymore. She knew what she had to do.

"I'll be back." Melissa said getting up and heading over to the tents.

She ran inside and started stuffing her things into her pack.

Going back to the plane, she was pleased to find Nathan and Daley sitting on the sand by the water.

Quietly, she took out of the first aid kit some first aid items and ran back to the tents. She stuffed the remaining items into her pack.

She then looked outside the tent to be sure no one was around. When she was satisfied with where everyone was, she put her pack on and ran into the jungle.

That night Melissa stumbled through the jungle by the light of a dying flashlight.

'_I know what Taylor's been doing all day, at it wasn't charging batteries.'_ Melissa thought to herself then stopped.

She caught herself just before walking over the edge of a small drop-off. She looked down and saw that below her was a small, narrow stream of water.

Carefully climbing down, she saw that right under where she had been standing was a small cave.

'_You'd never see it unless you're looking right at it!' _Melissa thought as she shined the dim light inside.

But even by the fast fading light, she could clearly see a sight she didn't want to.

**Just remember, the more reviews I get, the faster the next chapter goes up!** **They're like fuel for my fingers.**


	4. Stars Go Blue

**Chapter 4. Stars Go Blue**

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Melissa ran inside the cave and knelt down beside Jackson. He was sprawled out on the ground and unconscious. A large cut ran from his elbow to the back of his wrist.

Melissa picked up his head carefully and placed it on a rock by his head. Aside from the one on his arm, there were various other cuts and bruises covering his face and arms.

Melissa took off her pack and searched around for the first aid supplies. She took out some anti-septic pads and went to clean off his arm. At first she was weary about touching it cause it looked so bad, but after dabbing it a little, she was pleased to find that he was out cold.

After cleaning off the cut as much as she could, she contemplated on what to do about it.

'_I could just wrap it in gauze_, _but it look to serious for just that. I guess than only leaves me with one choice.' _she thought as she dug around in her pack.

She took out a spool of thread and a needle. After carefully threading the needle and cleaning it off, she took her place beside Jackson once again.

He had lost much blood as it was. If she was going to do this, she had to do it now.

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Jackson woke up early the next morning to find that he was covered with a blanket, had band-aids on his arm and face, and looking down he saw that his shirt was off and half of his right arm was wrapped in gauze.

But when he went to try and take it off, he heard a voice on the other side of the cave say,

"Don't take that off."

Jackson suddenly became aware of a soft light. Looking over he found a small fire a couple of feet away from him and Melissa lightly stoking the fire with a stick.

"I hade to put stitches in your arm." Melissa said walking over and sitting down beside him.

"Oh. Uh, thanks." Jackson said confused. "How did you find me? Even more, why did you find me?"

"I got worried when I heard that you went off alone, so I went to find you. What happened?"

"Well, apparently the little pig that Nathan and Daley caught has a brother. A big one with tusks. He chassed me until I got pinned up against a tree. But when he charged I was able to duck away so that he only got my arm. Finally, he chassed me here. I stopped at the edge, but he charged again and pushed me off. I crawled in here and was able to hide until he went away. Then I passed out." Jackson explained.

"Jackson, you shouldn't have gone off alone."

"I had to. I had to get away." Jackson said closing his eyes.

"From what?" Melissa asked hoping to find out what she wanted to know the most.

"It doesn't matter." Jackson said throwing the blanket off.

"Look, thanks for helping me, but I think I can go on alone now." he said starting to sit up.

"Um...I wouldn't..!" Melissa started as Jackson sat up.

But when he was up he grimaced and put a hand to his head before falling back on the backpack that served as his pillow.

He looked up to see Melissa giving him an 'I tried to tell you' smile.

"I was scared." Jackson sighed.

"About what?" Melissa asked confused.

"I have no good memories of my dad."Contrary to what everyone believes I actually used to have it nice. We lived in a nice house and my dad made good pay and supported us well. There was just one problem, he was an alcoholic."

Jackson looked up at Melissa who was hanging on to every word.

"He would come home in the afternoons stressed from work and he wasn't home fifteen minuets before he started yelling at my mom. After about an hour he would storm out and go to the bar. Me and my little brother Johnny always stayed upstairs until our mom told us it was safe."Jackson said sadly.

"That's rough." Melissa said sympathetically.

"It gets worse. A little after bedtime my dad would come home drunk. He would start yelling and hitting my mom. But no matter what he did to her, she wouldn't let him get to our bedrooms. That's just how much she loved us. Johnny and I would get so scared though that he would run into my room and sleep in my bed with me."

By now Jackson was almost to tears, so was Melissa.

"I can't begin to count how many times me and Johnny walked down the stairs in the mornings to find our mom cooking breakfast with a black eye or a cracked rib."

"She really loved you." Melissa said squeezing Jackson's hand that she had some how come to hold.

"Yeah. Her and Johnny are the only to reasons I want to go back home."

"But, what does all this have to do with..."

"That's not all. One night my dad came home in a rage. Evidently he had gone to the bar and was angry because he lost a promotion at work to some other guy. When he stomped into the house me and Johnny had just enough time to jump behind the couch before he saw us. It began with the usual yelling, then he started slapping and pushing. Finally, it was all-out punches and kicks."

Jackson and Melissa now had tears flowing freely down both of their faces.

"I never actually saw anything. But I can remember pressing the side of Johnny's head into my chest and putting my hand over his other ear so he didn't have to hear the cursing and yelling. Finally, I guess he ran into his bedroom and pulled out a gun. He shot at my mom twice, but only hit her once in the leg. But she's smart and she fell down anyway. Then my dad put the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. I called the authorities and they came and took my dad's body away and took my mom to the hospital."

"Is she ok?" Melissa asked sniffling.

"Yeah." Jackson half smiled. "But without my dad supporting us, we couldn't afford to live in our house any more, and before you knew it we were living in a trailer park with my mom working as a waitress in a truck stop diner. That's when I started to get into trouble. Finally, my mom couldn't support us anymore and called some people rom the city. They came and took Johnny and me to foster homes. The people there were great. They did everything they could to make me more comfortable. They even tried to better my education bu sending me to Hartwell. But since I had been home-schooled all my life, I wasn't really social. That's why I didn't have any friends." Jackson finished as he wiped his cheeks.

"So, is that why you ran away? You didn't think we would understand you?" Melissa asked.

"No. Like I said, I was scared. I was scared that I'd turn out just like my dad and hurt you. Melissa, your kind and caring and beautiful. And I'm the exact opposite." Jackson said sadly.

Melissa smiled as she leaned over and softly kissed him.

"Jackson, your perfect. Sure, you might be socially dented, but that's something we can work on. And as for everything you did before you came here, You've never done anything to us!" Melissa said smiling softly.

Jackson smiled widely before reaching up with his bad arm and pulling Melissa into a deeper kiss.

"Looks to me like your doing better." she said looking at his bad arm. "Think you can walk back to camp?"

"Sure." Jackson said sitting up. "But first tell me, why did you take off my shirt?"

"Because it was wet and dirty and I didn't want you to catch a cold." she giggled

"Riiiight!" Jackson said sarcastically.


	5. AN

**I redid Chapter 4 to the way I used to have it because I left some stuff out. So, is you want the full thing then read that chap again.**


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